


Bring On The Wonder (Itchy Feet)

by Mizzy



Category: Carnivale
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-11
Updated: 2011-03-11
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mizzy/pseuds/Mizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for telaryn for International Women's Day.  Prompt: Sofie, Carnivale, "Bring on the wonder, bring on the song."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bring On The Wonder (Itchy Feet)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Telaryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/gifts).



Sofie had heard about those regular folk, those ones that stayed in homes that didn't have wheels, the ones that crawled across from east to west looking for something called a dream. They struggled across the colourless landscape, losing children, losing hope, and finally plopped themselves down on a piece of land that was probably no better than the one they tore themselves up from.

They lived for a while in the place, a few years, before deciding the grass on the horizon looked so much greener. Her mother often thought this in a derisive way when they happened upon such a tale:  _itchy feet, they got itchy feet for sure, poor souls. They wish and wish for some place new and when they get there it's all the same again. You've got to be careful what you wish for._

Apollonia thought it in sepia, which Sofie learned early on meant  _blandness_  and  _end of all hope_. Her mother felt sorry for those people with itchy feet, the ones that didn't live the carnie way, the ones who couldn't pick up after a couple of days and ditch bad emotions and memories like trash on the side of the road. But for all as much as Apollonia could crawl into her head, her mother must have missed that Sofie got it too - those itchy feet. Two days was too long in a place. One day was too long. She had to keep moving, keep going, run so fast she could run away from herself.

Some places it wasn't so bad. They'd been down by a place with a river and a small town with decent folk, and Sofie had run in the small patches of grass without her shoes on. Perhaps she'd quenched her itchy feet with the moisture. But sure enough, the itchy feet came back and Samson wouldn't give the sign to move because they were making good money, and didn't Sofie enjoy eating?

Even Management pitched a fit about it, his caravan shaking apart like thunder was inside it, but Samson stayed strong under the brewing unease amongst the rest of the folk, Rita Sue and Lila leading the brays to stay, and insisted they stay.

 

That last night, Sofie's feet felt so itchy she stole some of Lodz's absinthe and drank herself to the sky and made a desperate, drunken wish on her itchy feet,  _Take me away, or go away!_  Later, the bland horizon, drenched in its warm sepia tones, called to her in song, screaming its potential, singing of the wonders it could hold. Sofie's feet itched her right out of bed into the middle of the caravan, and she may have been singing as she woke up.

 _You're drunk,_  Apollonia thought, but Sofie ignored her as best as she could, running out of the caravan in nothing but her shift, not even pausing for her shoes. The sand was still hot, and only Jonesy was up and about. He flushed at seeing her and turned away. Sofie turned to where the horizon had been singing in her dream, her head pounding, feeling a little dizzy and nauseous.

"We're going that way," Samson said, out of nowhere. Sofie turned, her short hair scratching her cheek with the whiplash of her head movement, and she smiled at him.

"Going somewhere good," Sofie said. "I can feel it."

Samson made a soft chuckling sound under his breath. "It don't surprise me."

Samson made the call to move, and Sofie's itchy feet went away. They were on their way, deeper into the Oklahoma dustbowl. Her mother wondered, a vague thought like a hum, where they were going.

"Somewhere called Milfay," Sofie said, thrilling with the wonder in her dream, the song from it so loud in her mind that she missed the keening sound filling her mother's mind.  _You've got to be careful what you wish for._

In Milfay they picked up a boy called Ben Hawkins. Her feet stopped itching. She never knew her itchy feet weren't anything but a song, a siren call of magic bringing her closer to him. She never knew until Justin's heart was beating back to life beneath her fingers, and by then it was too late, and she would long for days of itchy feet, but her feet stayed cold. She made her choice, and her feet wouldn't lead her to Ben ever again.


End file.
